Simon

Online marketing, SEO, social, and more

[Simon @SimonNicheSEO]

@AndySkraga PDF

[Simon @SimonNicheSEO]

@AndySkraga DIY

[Simon @SimonNicheSEO]

@publisherinabox But the admin is the one filing the tax form, even if the LLC gets paid.

I may be wrong, but Meta is then likely to report earnings of that person to that country. US and EU have laws requiring Meta to do so. So the admin residing there may then get questioned by their taxman...

[Simon @SimonNicheSEO]

@AndySkraga SITES

[Simon @SimonNicheSEO]

@MorganOMedia @lilyraynyc Maybe gone as a separate system... Because now it's probably just baked directly into core with the "small personal site" flag 🫣🤔

It baffles me how so many people still believe ANYTHING that G says

[Simon @SimonNicheSEO]

@lilyraynyc Yes... Ideally you make content, it's great, but it's on your "Small Personal Site" and as a result G will not show it to anyone 🫢🤣

... But if by accident some dissatisfied users switch to Bing, then they will magically find your great content on the first page 😂

[Simon @SimonNicheSEO]

@rustybrick @searchliaison Lol! Nobody cares anymore of what they say 🤡

[Niche Site Lady @NicheSiteLady]

Yikes!

[Jamie I.F. @Jamie_IF]

How is search liaison going to explain this one 🤣🤣

Not trying to be vindictive at all. But when you:
1. Destroy $1.5M of my asset value overnight so we have to lay off talented staff
2. Victim blame for months that we're all trash spammers and it's my fault (not search liaison, mostly other Googlers)
3. Get found to be doing exactly what you said you're not doing...

I might feel some kinda way about that 👀

[Simon @SimonNicheSEO]

@rustybrick LOL!!!!!!!

[Simon @SimonNicheSEO]

@Charles_SEO I avoided to chip in... Enough said in the existing replies 😂

[Simon @SimonNicheSEO]

@natejhake Without showing them a different html code (against the G guidelines), you can't, but you can block google bot and SGE with robots.txt

Or if you want to be sure that they don't ignore the directives, block them with firewall rules and they should slowly deindex 🤗

[Charles Floate 📈 @Charles_SEO]

Google has slowly been bleeding US search market share for a while, seems this past 30 days was when we started seeing it really ramping up though.. With bing seeing about 2x growth this year already 👀

Google still dominates, but this is further bad news for the company...

[Simon @SimonNicheSEO]

@ahmed_SEO_ Yep, not sure why some people keep using them...

[The World Travel Guy @aworldtravelguy]

@searchliaison @dannysullivan @JohnMu A few years ago I traveled to Peru and wrote the first guide for Huchuy Picchu, which was a newly opened hike at that time.

My blog post ranked #1 on Google for years, which makes sense, because I did the hike myself and other Peru websites just recycled what I wrote without going there.

Before HCU, people stealing my content like this weren't a big problem because Google had the sense to rank me over them (Bing still has me at #1).

After HCU, Google has dropped me down to #14 in the search results and I'm being outranked by lots of spammy commercial pages using MY photo of MY wife, while recycling MY words with AI.

This is one example of many. I try to be patient at first, but it's been 6 months.

At what point is Google liable for promoting stolen content like this while demoting me, the original author, without a fair explanation? How is this update helpful?

[Jon Miksis @JonMiksis]

If you’re a blogger who was recently hit by the Google updates, now’s the time to take a stand and start making some noise…

We are witnessing one of the biggest power grabs before our eyes— a slow-motion train wreck where small independent publishers are being systematically crushed by an algorithm favoring a handful of major players at the expense of everyone else. If we stay silent, then we are complicit.

In recent years, Google has transformed from a search engine into a promotional platform for Google products and ad partners. They aren’t trying to show the best content for users; their objective is to keep people’s eyes on Google’s own products and a handful of big publishers in which they have a financial stake. Unless you are paying them $$$, there is no space for you in their online ecosystem. Their recent updates have made that abundantly clear.

For years, Google has taken other people’s content, indexing it as their own in the form of widgets and sliders (sometimes mentioning the originating source, but oftentimes, not). But now, they have accelerated their domination of the online space with the recent HCU/spam updates.

While Google has publicly stated that their goal is to surface helpful content and reduce spam, these updates have shown us the opposite. Now, in the search results, it’s not uncommon to find not one, not two, not three…but FOUR sponsored ads before any organic content. Not to mention that most of the top positions now are dominated by a few major publishers with thin/lean content, and general advice that isn’t helpful to readers.

If the trend continues, there won’t be any small, independent publishers left. All content and information will be controlled by a handful of corporations who prioritize profits over people. There won’t be any financial incentive for small niche sites to continue creating content for search engines, as it will be almost impossible to rank. And even if you can somehow manage to crack the code, it won’t be long until all your unique/original content is copied by big publishers and you are displaced in the rankings once again.

Do you want to live in a world where a few major players dominate the entire online ecosystem? Where there’s no fighting chance to make a living online? That’s what will happen soon if you don’t speak up. Now is NOT the time to cross your fingers and hope that things get better.

Don’t rely on others to make noise on your behalf. The SEO experts aren’t gonna save you here; it’s time to speak up and engage in the conversation yourself. If we let Google continue to encroach on small businesses in this way—by tipping the scale in favor of themselves and a handful of corporations—then it won’t be long until all independent voices and perspectives are shut out.

Don’t disappear silently into the night, we need every voice we can…to put pressure on Google and make it a fair and even playing field once again for the little guy. It’s time to make a stand. Who agrees?

[Koray Tuğberk GÜBÜR @KorayGubur]

Kremlinology.

https://t.co/hZrmixz4sL

PS: I never used Google Spokespersons’ statements for any case study, or project. I always analyze them as a CIA member is skeptic about what Kremlin says.

If you expect honesty, and clarity about what they say, there are two possibilities.

- You are naive.
- You are new.

Another possibility is, you might be a Google Parrot (someone who tries to get clients by being seen approved by Googlers) or Google Sheep (someone who never questions authoritative companies).

As a last word: I miss Matt Cutts even more after seeing Google Search Relations Team’s constant failure on clear communication. I hope they can have spokespersons as actual Engineers, rather than old journalists. #seo

[Simon @SimonNicheSEO]

@NicheSiteSiry Got one site deindexed, however, it "only" lost 50% of the traffic. The rest was direct, social, and bing.

Strange that thousands of people per month bookmarked it and like to go there directly & share it on socials... Not bad for a supposed "pure spam" site.

Google's 🤡 show

[Simon @SimonNicheSEO]

@robiutft Or more probably, they changed something in the algo without announcing it 🤫

[Simon @SimonNicheSEO]

@martinomosna G can still read a noindex page but it will not add it to the index... And it wasn't always noindex.